Monthly Archives: May 2008

The doctor’s office called: the actual results show a lymph node problem — she couldn’t say what — and a “complex cyst”. They just monitor them to make sure they don’t get worse; I go back in 6 months for another mammogram.

I got my results from the radiologist: nothing’s wrong with me. Not even a little cyst or anything else. I’m perfectly fine! I’m not sure why they did an ultrasound or why they ordered another test to begin with, but everything’s good. Sorry to have even griped to begin with; I should have waited to see if it would be anything, but I didn’t think they’d order all this to have it end with me being perfectly normal.

While I pop into the Christmas store, a passerby does a round of “what kind of dog is she?” about Elphie and Morgan with John. Notice Elphie is totally aware of me.

Went to see Elphie’s new friend, Bruno the minipin. The best photo that I got was…

… them doing, ah….. dog things.

Elphie did get a new harness, a style I haven’t seen before. I like it — but I think she looks like she’s in the Coast Guard. 😉

The May 2008 page in the “Pets of Baywatch” calendar:

Why, yes, sir. There’s a lifeguard on duty!

Elvis is in the building! I ain’t nothing but a hound dog!

Another one of Elphie’s Elvis lip curl: just a hunka hunka burning love!

Atlantic City skyline, seen from our campground:

Casey and I talk serious issues at the campfire:

John played a game similar to horseshoes and quoites with our neighbors when we got back. Then we made our favorite camping dinner: a veggie bake cooked over the campfire. I hung out at our neighbors for awhile at night while Elphie played with their dogs: they — the neighbors, not their dogs, asked me who was winning the 600 race. I didn’t have the guts to admit we had turned off NASCAR to watch “What Women Want” with Mel Gibson. 😉 I quick flipped to the race, caught up on the latest, and then reported the results. LOL!

I can’t believe we go home tomorrow already. What a great weekend. I wish it wasn’t ending already.

Yesterday was fantastic. Becky, Adam, and Sophia got here and brought something I haven’t had in years! The fixings for s’mores! Just roasting those marshmallows and the flavor of them was so nostalgic. Equally nostalgic was how I immediately could turn my marshmallow into the Olympic torch! (By the way, I could have sworn it was spelled marshmellow!)

I did a bunch of things I haven’t done in a long time: played at a playground, running up the slide and hanging from the rings; running along side of a tricycle. Because of that trike, we did a lot of walking as Sophia explored the campground. We went to the small store here and visited Bruno, the campground’s minipin with his tiny spiked collar. When John got here, we grilled dinner and talked for a little more until they went home. Sophia thought John was wonderful with the way he used his marshmallow stick as a magic wand. Little did she know he was trying to use it to get her to quiet down. She’d call out, “Do more magic!” and he’d wave around the stick saying, “You will sleep for 5 hours! Now!”

It didn’t work. But she told her parents later that it was her favorite part of the day.

Becky hugs the hugging dog. Morgan hung out with her and Adam quite a bit, prompting them to tell me not to be surprised if Morgan was missing later. I told them to get in line. Lots of people want Morgan to come live with them!

I have great friends. Becky called on their way down to say they were stopping at the store for s’mores stuff and did I need anything. I said, “A bra.” Without blinking, she said, “What size?”

Sophia is the little girl who said she’d give up all the money in her piggy bank so I could go to Disney with her. Because of all the things she wanted, me being with her is what she wanted most. So Uncle John magic might be the best thing in the day, but Auntie Erin in Disney trumps all! Not that I’m competitive or anything.

You mean they replaced all the metal that could break and rust and gauge your eyes out with safety plastic? Why would they ever do that?!

They had these new kind of bubbles that let you “catch” them, so to speak. Ignore the dirt on my hands. I just got back from the playground where I helped to make a sandcastle. And Elphie played Godzilla with it, taking it down. The kids loved that so much, they did it 5 more times with her.

Morgan relaxing on John’s subtle tribute to the American flag mat.

Wanna make your neighbors blink and reach for their cellphones to dial 911? Put a child in the fire ring. (Honest, officer! She climbed in it! She likes it!)

“Unca John needs help walkin’ Morgan!”

“All this relaxing makes us tired!” You can’t see them, but the dogs got too nosey around the s’mores and have little marshmallow spikes in their fur.

Elphie, John, our camper, and more of John’s subtle tribute to the American flag! He did it all to “counterbalance all the rebel flags around us!” Even Adam, who is from Texas, said, “That’s a lot of stars and bars!”

All this quality time with his wife makes John go…

The dogs were so beat, they slept through the night! YAY!!

Today, we’re going to Smithville to walk around, get lunch, and Elphie a harness. Plus, more relaxing!

We’re in Pomona Campground this weekend. We had a little rocky start; I forgot stuff again! Plus, I wish we had a better site. It’s a little small and we’re surrounded by very old RVs that look a bit rundown. There’s more rebel flags than Robert E. Lee ever saw. John greeted me with some nagging, and Elphie slipped out of her collar – hence, the nagging. And while I write this, they’re here cleaning out the septic system. Couldn’t they have done that during the week when no one was here?

But our neighbors are friendly, and John gave them his business card with a hint about “Don’t you want a nice, new RV and get rid of this old one?” It’s gorgeous weather and it’s John’s picking up the things we forgot on his way here after work. Then he’s off the rest of the weekend. And the main thing is to relax.

The dogs certainly didn’t let anything keep them from relaxing!

As if that wasn’t relaxing enough, Elphie grabbed the afghan and made a comfy nest on the couch.

Morgan decided, why bother with the couch when you can just go to bed?

“Mom, I remade the bed! Now it’s perfect!”

Not to be outdone, once John went to bed, Casey made herself one by grabbing most of the pillows:

So we had a nice relaxing night. Some friends are coming over in a little while; hopefully, everything will go well!

Anyway, DeeDee, Scout, Creamy…. they need grooming and their hoofs cleaned, etc. So 10 of us asked to be in the class and Mary Lou taught us with the help of these lovely gentlemen:

That’s Reno in the foreground and Doc in the back. I thought I had a better picture of them. Sigh. But they and Mary Lou were very patient with us as we learned about grooming, cleaning the feet with and without shoes, feed, leading them including the voice cues, plus taking them in and out of their stalls. We also learned taking their pulse and respiration rates. God help me if I have to ever take their temperatures!

Both of “the boys”, as Mary Lou calls them, were very good with us. Reno, being younger, tended to want to play more and, since as Mary Lou said, “He doesn’t just have ADD. He has ADDDDDDDDDDDDD……”, we had to remind him sometimes that he was supposed to be helping us by lifting his feet or walking with us, and not nibbling on our jeans pockets!

The class, which took an extra hour because we didn’t start on time because we were chatting, climbing trees with the kids (yes, I’m guilty!), and just fussing over the horses when we first met them (Who’s a handsome boy? Who is? You are!!), plus Mary Lou was very good about making sure we did everything ourselves which takes time with 10 people. Even mellow, easy going Doc had enough of us each taking him into his stall, taking off his halter, and leaving safely only for the next volunteer to put on his halter, lead him out and the whole thing over again. So they had something to eat with Reno running over to see what he was missing out on & getting extra kisses and pats as we left.

I learned one important thing: grooming a horse is an upper body workout! Whew! If you’re looking to tone those arms and torsos, come down and help us groom horses!

Next, I’m going to work out a schedule to get down to our farm to help out with DeeDee and the others, plus Tommy, the Snausage Dog:

plus our kitties, like Scooter:

I updated my avatar to include some of the animals at the shelter, but the farm backgrounds didn’t really look like our place. So I decided to take the animals some place they couldn’t go: historic Philadelphia. They shouldn’t live so close and never see the place. 😉